11.08.10
Kathy Barnstorff
NASA Langley Research Center
757-864-9886, 344-8511 (mobile)
kathy.barnstorff@nasa.gov
Harla Sherwood
National Institute of Aerospace
(757) 636-6300
Sherwood@nianet.orgRELEASE: 10-101
NASA/NIA TO SPONSOR STUDENT PLANETARY ROVER CHALLENGE
HAMPTON, Va. -- Few NASA projects in recent years have captured the
public's attention like the Mars rovers. Now researchers are hoping
the chance to design a future rover may capture university students'
interest.
NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace or NIA in Hampton, Va.,
have launched a new planetary rover engineering competition called
Exploration Robo-Ops Student Challenge. University teams are eligible
to win as much as $10,000 for designing and building a planetary
rover, then demonstrating its capability to perform a series of tasks
at the NASA Johnson Space Center's Rock Yard in Houston, Texas.
"NASA is excited to sponsor this competition that lets us see
students' creative solutions to real engineering problems," Pat
Troutman, Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage
(RASC-AL) sponsor at NASA's Langley Research Center. "This challenge
gives NASA the benefit of student innovation in robotic operations,
but it also gives the students a chance to excite the public and
others about their mission."
Graduate and undergraduate engineering teams with a faculty advisor
are eligible to compete. Teams are required to submit a project plan
proposal by Dec. 15. Up to 10 qualifying teams to be announced Dec.
23 will move on to the building phase of the competition. Those
teams' rovers will then compete against one another at the 2011
RASC-AL Robo-Ops Forum in May next year.
Full details are on the RASC-AL Robo-Ops website:
http://www.nianet.org/RASCAL/RoboOps/index.aspx
Teams that qualify will receive $5,000 to partially offset the cost of
rover hardware and another $5,000 to cover travel costs to send two
students, a faculty advisor and their rover to NASA's Johnson Space
Center for four days. Other team members will remain back at the
university to conduct the remote control elements of the competition.
Each rover must be able to be controlled from the home university
campus through a commercial broadband wireless uplink and negotiate a
series of obstacles while accomplishing tasks in the quickest time.
Cameras will transmit the competition back to the universities and to
the general public.
In support of NASA's interest in engaging the public in its missions,
teams also have to include an education and public outreach plan that
tries to involve the public in their rover design effort and the
overall competition. They're encouraged to partner with other
students, including those with communications and marketing majors,
to produce Internet-based social media campaigns and outreach
products including videos, blogs and events that demonstrate the
concept of participatory exploration for their "mission."
"By having the participating teams engage their community, fellow
students and peers throughout the process of designing and competing
their planetary rover, we expect to increase the interest the
public's awareness of NASA's space exploration missions, " said
Shelley Spears, NIA director of outreach and RASC-AL program
director.
For more information about NASA Langley programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/langley
For more information about the National Institute of Aerospace, visit:
http://www.NIAnet.org

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